Power Assure Introduces Free Version of its Award Winning PAR4 Measurement Tool for Server Energy Efficiency

SOURCE: Power Assure^®, Inc.

Santa Clara, Calif., March 4, 2014 – Power Assure^®, Inc., developer of the PAR^4® energy efficiency standard adopted by Underwriters Laboratories and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, today announced that it is making its PAR⁴ Measurement Tool, a software utility which allows users to fully exercise servers, measure power consumption and calculate PAR⁴ energy efficiency ratings, available for download and use by organizations and individuals entirely free of charge.

The patented PAR⁴ standard allows hardware vendors to publish accurate, independent energy efficiency figures for their servers, enabling data center managers and IT professionals to select the most energy efficient machines for their application.   Furthermore, integrated with various inventory systems, PAR⁴ measurements can be used to place equipment to the right rack and location in a data center without risk of overloading circuits but maximizing the amount of equipment placed into each rack.

The Absolute PAR⁴ value provides a simple, easily comparable number representing the computational power actually delivered for each unit of electricity consumed, while the Vintage PAR⁴ value adjusts that result to take into account the server’s year of manufacture, according to the principals of Moore’s Law.    Vintage PAR⁴ values are allocated to one of four rating bands, BLACK, SILVER, GOLD, and GREEN giving an immediate indication of server efficiency, the value of which, unlike other energy efficiency ratings, is not negated over time.

The PAR⁴ Measurement Tool provides access to Power Assure’s advanced PAR⁴ technology without charge, allowing anyone to independently rate the efficiency of a server.  To obtain PAR⁴ measurement results, organizations and individuals only need to provide a plug-in power meter, widely available for less than $20.  The PAR⁴ Measurement Tool and full instructions can be downloaded immediately at www.par4.org.

Power Assure and Underwriters Laboratories provide Certification Services to allow server manufacturers to obtain certified PAR⁴ measurement results.  Certified results may be published and compared, and a sticker or logo representing the rating band achieved applied to the server or used in documentation and promotional materials.

In addition, Power Assure offers a PAR⁴ Benchmarking System that provides a platform for data center users to perform automated PAR⁴ measurements for a rack of servers in a wide variety of environments.

“We believe that PAR⁴ provides critical energy efficiency information for organizations to select their servers, and to determine the true amount of power a server will consume at full load,” said Pete Malcolm, president and CEO, Power Assure.  “Formerly PAR⁴ efficiency ratings were only available to our customers, however, we have become convinced that making this technology widely available will help move the industry faster towards running more efficient servers and data centers.”

About Power Assure (www.powerassure.com)

Power Assure is the leading developer of software-defined power solutions for large enterprises, government agencies, and managed service providers. Power Assure’s solutions provide visibility, intelligence, analytics and automation to help CIOs, IT directors, and facilities managers optimize capacity, service levels, and power consumption within and across data centers. Headquartered in Santa Clara, CA, the company is privately held with funding from ABB Technology Ventures, Dominion Energy Technologies, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Good Energies, Point Judith Capital, and a grant from the Department of Energy. Power Assure partners include ABB, Cisco, Dell, IBM, In-Q-Tel, PARC, Raritan, UL and VMware.